Don't be alarmed by the name! The Men's Team is not a Men's Rights Activist organization. Quite the opposite. In fact, given that the Men's Team is an organization of men at York University in Toronto affiliated with the university's Centre for Human Rights, it could just as easily be known by the far more ungainly title "Men Speaking to Men about Gender-Based Violence and Masculinity at York University." Doesn't quite have the same ring to it, does it? Still, it's difficult to get away from the fact that "The Men's Team" connotes an investment in masculinity. Perhaps it even produces the impression that a group of men are circling their wagons to defend masculine privilege. No one could be blamed for reading "The Men's Team" this way, since all too often, masculinity -- a belief that men must be violent, strong, tough, unemotional, authoritative, etc. -- is the identity men perform, whether because we enjoy the privileges that accrue to it or because we feel compelled to behave that way in order to find acceptance in communities of other men. [read more]